Staff Platform Engineer

Herbert Smith

platform engineering · api systems · automation

I design platform systems that reduce engineering friction and make complex delivery routine. Staff-track background in enterprise API ownership, automation engineering, and cross-team architecture alignment.

Consulting Inquiry View Work

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Summary

Executive Summary

Staff-track engineer with deep ownership across enterprise API platforms, automation systems, developer experience, and cross-team architecture alignment. Background spans Citigroup (VP-level) and JPMorgan Chase. I build systems that reduce engineering friction, standardize execution, and continue delivering value after they're shipped.

Capabilities

System Highlights

Platform API

Production API Ownership at Scale

80+ production REST endpoints owned and maintained in regulated enterprise environments. 72+ built from scratch with contract-first design.

Architecture

Cross-Layer System Alignment

UI → API → DB alignment across frontend, backend, and database stakeholders. Standardized auth guards, HTTP clients, and request/response contracts.

Automation

Engineering Leverage Through Tooling

Proprietary automation that collapsed multi-month migration effort into 12-second execution. Platform modules that multiply team output without adding headcount.

DevEx

Developer Experience Infrastructure

Platform modules, structured Postman collections, technical documentation, and reusable service abstractions adopted across teams.

Selected Systems

Selected Systems

Subscription Automation Platform

Citigroup — Dec 2023 – Dec 2025

  • Owned 80+ internal REST endpoints; built 72+ from scratch for subscription, schedule, delivery, and notification workflows
  • Replaced manual approval paths for internal teams with reusable, automated backend services
  • Built platform patterns across controllers, services, repositories, interceptors, mapping, logging, and test layers
  • Integrated health checks, audit logging, and observability into a custom request/response framework
Spring Boot · Oracle · Kafka · Redis

SQL Migration Automation Engine

JPMorgan Chase — 2021 – 2023

  • Built a proprietary MariaDB-to-Oracle SQL translation tool that converted millions of lines of SQL in 12 seconds
  • Removed a migration bottleneck estimated at roughly four months for a seven-engineer team
  • Profiled and optimized the program to eliminate chunked processing and memory bottlenecks
Java · Regex · Performance Profiling

Accessibility Architecture — TTS Platform

JPMorgan Chase — 2020 – 2023

  • Challenged the default TalkBack implementation and designed a modular Text To Speech-based accessibility system
  • Linked to lifecycle events, logs, errors, statuses, and HTTP state for deterministic output
  • Produced a more reliable, configurable, and extensible architecture than the original proposal
Android · Kotlin · TTS API

Kotlin DSL / SPA Code Generation Platform

Personal Platform — Current

  • Designed a typed Kotlin DSL that models the DOM as an AST and generates canonical HTML/SPA artifacts at build time
  • Used KSP-backed code generation to eliminate web development context switching
  • Validated in production: 1.7K+ unique visitors and 53K+ requests in 30 days
Kotlin · Gradle · KSP · AST

Signal

Metrics

80+ Production API endpoints Owned and maintained in regulated enterprise environments
12s Migration automation Millions of SQL lines converted — previously a four-month effort
950% Regression coverage increase Enterprise Android platform, JUnit / Mockito / Espresso / Robolectric
1.7K+ Unique visitors Personal SPA generator validated in production — 53K+ requests / 30 days

Thinking

Platform Thinking

I design for leverage, not just delivery. The goal is always a system that reduces friction for the engineers who adopt it, the teams who depend on it, and the operations that run on top of it.

Most engineering effort gets spent re-solving the same problems at different layers. Platform thinking is about identifying those patterns early and making them reusable, observable, and adoptable — not clever.

  • Standardize the contract before optimizing the implementation
  • Observability is not optional — it's part of the system
  • Automation that removes manual effort is infrastructure, not tooling
  • The best platform is the one teams don't notice — because it just works

Availability

Consulting

Available for platform engineering engagements.

I work at the architecture and execution layer — API design, platform systems, automation engineering, developer tooling, and cross-team technical alignment. Staff-level capacity for contract, consulting, and full-time engagements.

Consulting / Contract

Platform & API Engineering

API design, platform module development, automation systems, observability infrastructure, developer tooling.

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Hiring / Recruiter

Staff Platform Engineer

Open to staff-level, senior, and enterprise platform engineering opportunities. Remote preferred. Available immediately.

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Contact

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